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Combat.mp2
Jump to Combat Strength Modifications 'Basics' A unit cannot enter a tile occupied by an enemy unit. If ordered to do so, it will attack instead, locking the two units in combat until one is destroyed. An attack usually costs the aggressor one movement point, but results in no actual motion — the surviving unit remains where it was when the combat started. Some restrictions upon warfare are obvious — units must have a nonzero attack strength to attack, while defenders with zero defense strength lose immediately. There are also limits upon which units can attack which others. Most Land units can only attack other Land units. Most ships can attack not only other ships, but any land units adjacent to them. Helicopters can attack Land and Sea units and can be attacked by any kind of unit (land, sea, or air). Bombers and Missiles can attack any Land or Sea unit, and though their targets will defend themselves from attack, most cannot attack in return. Only Fighters, Marines, and Anti-Aircraft Artillery can attack every kind of unit. Aircraft in cities and air bases are on the ground, and only in this case, can be attacked by land. Ships in port are similarly vulnerable. The Marines unit and Anti-Aircraft Artillery unit can attack targets from aboard ship or Helicopter; other Land units must disembark and wait one turn before engaging enemy units (unless the ship first docks at port inside a native or allied city.) There are two other actions related to combat. A unit ordered to S'entry remains in place indefinitely and no longer asks for orders each turn. Sentry units can not only be reactivated manually (by selecting them), but activate automatically should an enemy unit come into view. Land units can additionally be ordered to '''F'ortify,' which means they spend one movement point preparing to be attacked; once fortified they enjoy the same advantage as land units within an unwalled city. A unit whose movement points are exhausted cannot fortify — it must have one movement point left at the end of a turn to begin the next turn fortified. 'Spies in combat. Spies can also harm enemy units by doing sabotage. Combat Mechanics Each unit begins combat with one or more hit points, which are the amount of damage it can sustain. (See the units page for stats on each unit type.) Combat consists of successive rounds of violence between the units, which cannot be interrupted and ceases only when one unit is reduced to zero hit points and dies. In each round, only one unit succeeds in wounding the other. The damage a unit inflicts with each blow is called its firepower. Which unit inflicts damage on any given round of combat is random. The attacker has a chance proportional to his attack strength, while the defender's chance is proportional to his defense strength. For example, Archers (attack stength 3) attacking a Phalanx (defense strength 2) will have a '''⅗ chance of inflicting damage each round, with the phalanx having the remaining ⅖ chance. Tired attack. Units attacking with less than one full movement point get penalized because of their tiredness. Only a fraction of their normal attack strength is considered. If they have ⅔''' movement points, they will attack with '''⅔ strength. If they have ⅓''' movement points, they will attack with '''⅓ strength, etc. Besides "tired attack", there are many factors which affect unit strength, which are summarized in the table below: Combat Strength Modifications These factors are combined. A city with walls which is built on a hill with a river gives 2×1.5×3. Fortified units receive no bonus in a city: the effect of being in a city can really be thought of as a "free fortify bonus." If a land unit's 3x bonus for City Walls is invalid when attacked by Air, Sea, or Howitzers, the defending unit gets the 1.5x city bonus instead. A defending unit never receives both the 1.5x and the 3x bonus in a city with walls. There are also circumstances that result in very specific adjustments to combat: Promotions and Healing General Promotions. Units have a chance of being "promoted" to a higher veteran level each time they survive combat. With only two exceptions (farther below), all units in the game have the following odds of promotion after surviving battle: Air Promotions. Because they get so many attacks each turn, Air units have a lower chance of promotion for each battle: Marines'' are the last foot units. Promotion rates represent the arrival of better weapons throughout the late game:'' Marine Veterans. 'Strength multipliers for veterans are below. '' Elite Marines have a higher bonus than other units: '''Healing. '''Units remain damaged after losing hit points in combat, and will enter subsequent engagements with this disadvantage. Damaged land and sea units also begin each turn with fewer movement points than normal, in proportion to what fraction of their total hit points remain. To regain hit points they must spend turns neither moving nor attacking. Resting in the open restores one hit point; spending a turn fortified restores two; in a fortress they regain one-quarter of their original hit points; and in a city they regain a full third of their original points. If you sentry a damaged unit, it will become active again and demand further orders when its hit points are fully restored. You may enhance the effects of a city upon your units with several different buildings: | |- | |} | |} Stack kill, Cities and Forts When several units on the same tile are attacked, the unit most capable of defense protects the entire tile. More precisely, for all defenders on the field which can defend against the attacker winning chance is calculated to the precision of 0,001%; if top result is similar for several units, unit cost is taken into account (forth goes the cheaper one), and if even then there is uncertainity, the units are rated by (defense strength)×(rounds it is able to lose)×(firepower). If the defenders are within a city or fortress, the loss of that defender leaves the other units intact; but outside of such fortification, loss of the defender results in the loss of every Land unit in the tile. When a ship carrying other units is involved in combat (as either attacker or defender), only the ship participates in the engagement and its occupants are lost if the ship goes down. '''Air and Sea Units have a special flag called "CanEscape", which can help them possibly survive a Killstack event. When they are present in a stack whose defender has died, they have a 50% chance to escape to an adjacent tile if and only if they have more move points than the attacker. This properly simulates the abilities of Air and Sea stacks to escape in multiple directions, and helps preserve more realistic dynamics of how air and sea combat works. Defeating a unit inside a city without walls kills one citizen if the attacker is a Land unit -- unless the attacking unit is Knights. Once the last defender has fallen you may enter the city and claim it as your own with either a Land unit or Helicopter; ships and aircraft can assault cities but not take them. In the process of the capturing the city loses 1 population which destroys a city of size 1. Upon the capture of a city from another civilization, each building has a 20% chance of being destroyed, and the victor may discover a technology held by the vanquished. Building a fortress requires the Construction advance. To begin construction, move settlers, workers, or engineers to the location at which you desire a fort and give them the build fortress order. The work will require two worker-turns. A fortress can go anywhere outside a city-center tile. There are buildings which improve the strength of units who are attacked inside the city: | |- | | |} Note that the Great Wall wonder counts as City Walls. Nuclear Combat Nuclear bombs and missiles do not engage in combat like other units — they either strike within range of an SDI Defense and are harmlessly destroyed, or detonate and blast the entire 3x3 area centered on the unit or city they attack. Within the blast area all units are destroyed, cities lose half their population, and each land tile has a one-half chance of becoming polluted with fallout. Just as excessive pollution across the world can trigger global warming, fallout raises the chances of nuclear winter with the opposite effect — rather than coastlines becoming jungles and swamp, terrain begins changing into desert and tundra. Settlers, workers, and engineers must be given the clean fallout command to dispose of nuclear waste, which costs three settler-turns per tile. Bombardment Multiplayer rulesets do not allow 'bombardment'. Capturing Units. The following units may be captured, which converts them into your own units: * Workers * Explorer * Caravan, Freight To capture a unit requires a foot soldier or mounted unit whose attack value is 3''' or higher. Units on Mountains terrain may not be captured. Expelling Units. The following units may be expelled from your nation, which sends them back to their home country: * '''Settlers, Well-Digger, Workers, Engineers * Diplomat, Spy * Caravan, Freight * Explorer, AWACS To expel an Air unit requires a Fighter or Stealth Fighter. To expel a Land unit requires any Land-based military unit except Warriors. Units on Mountains terrain may not be expelled.